Jesus Our Great High Priest (2 of 2)

Hebrews 4 and the Call to Hold Fast Our Confession

This morning, you know exactly where we're going to be. Hebrews chapter 4, if you were here this morning, you remember we read through the end of the chapter, but we did not preach through the end of the chapter.

And the last two verses are amongst some of the favorite verses of the people of God. And so we dare not leave them uncommented upon or unapplied. So we will be in Hebrews chapter 4. We'll actually sort of back up and review verses 14 and following.

But let's ask the Lord's blessing upon our time. Indeed, once again, our Heavenly Father, we ask that you would, by your spirit, meet with us, help us to lay aside those things that would distract us, that would keep us from focusing upon your truth.

Lord, may we hear what your word would have for us this evening. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. As we looked at the book of Hebrews this morning, we saw that after the lengthy section of exhortation, warning passages, yet once again, we have entered into, beginning at verse 12 of chapter 4, the expected portion of exhortation and encouragement.

After you have very strong words, warning against not entering into the rest, and the many people who, though they had seen the deliverance from Egypt, did not enter into the promised land, you expect, we see, we will see this again in chapter 6, to see words of positive exhortation and encouragement.

And indeed, that's what we see. We saw in verses 12 and 13 the fact that God's word searches us, it makes a division, it discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart. And then, beginning in verse 14, we had this very positive exhortation to look not to ourselves so much as to look to the one who is able to save us, that is, the person of Jesus Christ.

And when we began talking about Jesus, the Son of God, I succumbed to the temptation to begin preaching, especially at the phrase, hold fast your confession. This is an exhortation that I think needs to be repeated very regularly in our day, for not only ourselves, but those we pray for in other lands are always having to be exhorted to hold fast the profession, the confession of faith that is ours, that is focused upon Jesus as the Son of God.

But notice he says, we have this great high priest. Only we have this great high priest. Remember the book of Hebrews written to those who are being pushed to go back to the old ways. And if they were to go back to the old ways, they would not have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens and entered into the very holy place itself.

They would have a high priest who will pass away. They will have a high priest who, because of death, will not be allowed to continue in his office and therefore is not able to save the uttermost, those who draw nigh unto God, by him.

But we, those who profess that Jesus is the Son of God, have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, and because we look to him, therefore we are to hold fast to our confession, to our profession.

Christ Our Sympathetic High Priest

That's where we ended this morning, but we have two more verses to look at. The first verse describes for us something about this great high priest. And the second verse then says that on the basis of his being our great high priest who has passed through the heavens, therefore we are to come with confidence, even with boldness, before the throne of grace.

We look at verses 15 and 16 this evening. Notice when describing this great high priest, he says, for we do not have a high priest who is not able to sympathize, sympathize with our weaknesses. Now, interestingly enough, sympathize, though it's a word we all understand, is actually a transliteration of the original Greek term that's found here.

And it means to enter into and understand the pathos, the feelings, the sufferings that are ours. One who can come along and understand our situation and our sufferings. This is an amazing thing that takes us back to what we saw in Hebrews chapter 1, when we think of this one who created all things and yet he has entered into human flesh.

And so there is this assertion that, yes, Jesus is the Son of God. We're to hold fast our confession. How do we do so? Well, because we have a high priest. But he's not just any high priest. He is the high priest who, yes, while the creator of all things, is also able to understand.

He is also able to have sympathy for our weaknesses. He knows what it is to be human. Does not know what it is to be a sinner, but he knows what it is to live in this world, to face the limitations that we face, to be surrounded with the things that we're surrounded with.

He is a high priest who understands. You see, if we just had a Superman, if we just had a deity that floated down out of heaven, that did not truly become man, did not tabernacle amongst us, how much of an encouragement would it be to say, well, look to that Superman.

Well, yeah, he's Superman. I mean, he's not like me. He doesn't know what it's like to be tired. Well, but Jesus did know what it was like to be tired. And Jesus did know what it was like, in fact, to minister God's truth in the midst of the sick.

And the very people of our society that many of us are very safely away from and keep away from in many situations. Jesus understood what it was like to be tired. Jesus knew what it was like to get up early in the morning and to have communion with his Father.

And so this description of his being able to sympathize with us is then explained a little bit more with this statement that has caused oh so much discussion, oh so much debate over the history of the church, because it speaks to the fact that he has been tested, tempted, and literally, and if you look at your translations, you'll notice almost all translations will have some italicized words here, because to make it flow in the English language, you sort of have to supply some things.

But literally, it says, having been tested according to all likenesses. Now, what in the world would that mean? Likenesses, similarities. The point that is being made is that Jesus experienced all of the categories of temptation.

Not every single temptation that we have experienced, but the categories of temptation, such as pride, and anger, and falsefulness, and all these other things. We can very easily see that there are certain particular temptations that Jesus would not have been exposed to, because we as sinners experience the temptation of repeating sin.

We experience the temptation that comes from sins that are repetitive, which would not be his experience. But all the major areas of temptation, we see in the temptations of Jesus, for example, taking the shortcut, taking the easy way.

Selfishness, anger, pride. I mean, if anyone had a grounds for being prideful, it would have been the Lord. But even his prayers had no tinge of any kind of pride or ego within them. So, he is tested.

He is tempted. He has gone through every kind of temptation that we have gone through, yet, the last two words of the verse, without sin. Without sin. And so, the person who looks to Jesus, this person who says, yes, I want to hold fast my profession.

I don't want the world to be constantly beating me down. I don't want to be one of those people who makes a profession and then, oh, I bring such disrepute upon the name of Christ. I fail. So, clearly, my anger gets the best of me.

What can I do?

You can look to a faithful high priest who can understand, who can sympathize with your weaknesses, because he has been tempted. And yet, and yet, he made it through those temptations. Now, again, some people might say, but he is the son of God.

It will be easy for him.

One of the things I think we need to notice in the life of Jesus is that he relied upon the Holy Spirit of God. Again, it wasn't simply one of those situations where it's just, well, you know, there's no real issues here with my ever sinning.

This raises the whole issue of the impeccability of Christ.

What does that mean?

Well, there's this debate that people have. Could Jesus have sinned? Well, I'm not going to answer all your questions about that. I came to a conclusion that was sufficient for me many, many years ago on that issue.

And my conclusion was this. It is significantly more definitional of the nature of God that he cannot sin. That is the nature of man that he can. In other words, we look at eternity to come. Will we be less human because there will be no sin?

If you make it absolutely definitional of the character of man, that he has to have the ability to sin, then we won't really be human in eternity to come because there will be no evil in that context.

So I believe that Jesus, as the God man, could not cease being the God man by committing sin. That does not change the fact that he was the God man. And therefore, his human nature is subject to temptation.

And so he knows the pull of those things that we experience. And he didn't just simply switch that stuff off as the divine son of God. He relied upon the Spirit of God, the very same Spirit of God that indwells every believer to be his guide and his strength.

And so there is everything good and proper for a person to look to Christ in those situations, to look away from oneself, having examined oneself. Chapters 3 and 4, you examine yourself, do not harden your heart, listen to the voice of God.

Yes, but once you understand the status of your heart, you can't keep looking in there to find the solutions to your sin and your evil. You have to look somewhere else. You have to look to the sinless Son of God, who is our great High Priest, who sympathizes, who understands our weaknesses, and therefore becomes our example, the means by which we then can hold fast.

Isn't it wonderful that we hear those words, hold fast, but it is not just up to us to hold fast. Our arm is strengthened because we are not alone. We have one who sympathizes with us. We have one who we're going to see.

This brief mention here is expanded out beautifully in coming chapters of Hebrews. I can't wait to get to them. As the High Priest who is able, because he intercedes for us, to save us completely forevermore.

That becomes the very bulwark of our confidence. And so we have a great High Priest. Jesus, the Son of God, he's passed through the heavens. And that means we then have the promise of verse 16. Now, some of you have read Charles Spurgeon's sermon on Hebrews 4 .16.

And I would encourage you, if you have time tonight or tomorrow, to read that sermon. It is a tremendously well-done sermon, as many of Brother Spurgeon's sermons were. That's probably why he's so popular today.

And you might say, well, how am I supposed to do that?

They're all online.

In fact, if you just go to the great oracle of knowledge called Google, and you type in there, Spurgeon on Hebrews 4 .16, the very first return, will give you the index to a friend of mine's website, Phil Johnson, and will take you directly to his sermon in the Metropolitan Tabernacle on the subject of Hebrews 4 .16.

And I will not even attempt to repeat what Brother Spurgeon had to say. But I will try to bring out some of the key elements of this tremendous text. You will notice that when we are exhorted to approach, come toward this throne of grace with boldness, with confidence, in order that we might receive mercy, that we might find grace to help at the proper time, the time of need, the first thing that has already been established is that our great high priest has already passed through the heavens.

He has opened the way to the throne of grace. Man's religion cannot provide a proper entrance before the throne of grace. All the self-righteousness of man will close the way to the throne of grace. The only approach that is available is through Jesus, the Son of God, our great high priest.

Only he who draws near to God through him, by means of him, will find this throne of grace. It is not that the rest of humankind will not find itself in the presence of God.

It will.

But they will not be before the throne of grace. They will be before the throne of judgment. No one needs to open the way to the throne of judgment. That is the broad way. But someone needed to open the way to the throne of grace.

And that Jesus Christ has done. And only Jesus Christ has done. Once again, it becomes irrational and foolish to attempt to create a Christianity that does not have the uniqueness of Jesus as the only means of salvation.

It is an empty faith. It is not a biblical faith. But we are commanded to draw near. To come before with confidence the throne of grace. Let's think about where we're going first. And then we'll think about how we get there.

It is a throne. And because it is a throne, we Americans have a hard time understanding what to do with it. We don't have thrones. We threw the thrones out. We don't like the idea of thrones. And as a result, most Americans really struggle with the royal aspects of God's being.

This is an example that God has used over and over again of his royal rulership over the creation. And we're like, well, you know, we sort of have the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. And sadly, I think a lot of people think God's sort of subject to those things.

But we've missed something when we don't think about the grandeur of the king upon his throne. All we've seen is some old movies and, well, you know, out at the Renaissance Fair or something like that.

This is a throne. It bespeaks power. And unlike certain elected officials today, there were certain ways you're supposed to approach a throne. There were certain protocols. Nobody just came jaunting in in front of the king and say, hey, king, I got something I want to take up with you.

A person came in and they did so with great humility. They showed themselves to be submissive to the authority of that throne. To do anything else was to, in essence, reject the authority of that throne.

That's not a throne. That doesn't represent real power or authority. So, a person who comes before a kingly figure does not do so apathetically. Does not do so in a trite fashion. Unfortunately, as much as people might wish to speak about our freedom in Christ, there is simply something proper about showing respect in the worship of God.

And since to come before the throne of grace here is primarily done in the context of prayer, the idea of approaching God in a flippant and easy manner, as popular as it might be and as big as it might grow your church, simply doesn't fit with the biblical parameters that we see in scripture.

We are coming before a throne. We do not have any authority in and of ourselves. We are coming before the one who has authority. But it's called the throne of grace. That could be translated, maybe in some of your translations, it is translated the gracious throne.

The throne from which grace is dispensed. That is marked by graciousness. And certainly, hopefully you know, that that beautiful word in the New Testament speaks of a freeness on God's part. Grace can never be demanded.

Grace can never be earned. Grace can never be merited. As soon as you add one bit of human accomplishment or merit to grace, it's no longer grace. Grace speaks of God's freedom to love and to benefit as he sees.

So here is a throne. It's the very source of grace. And what do we need to be able to hold firm our confession in every generation, in every land? The same thing they needed when this book was written.

As those pressures came upon those believers to go back to the old ways, what the writer is saying is you have a throne of grace to go to. And you can go before that throne and you can find the grace that you need.

You can find that we might receive mercy. And we might find grace to help in time of need. I hope he doesn't mind my mentioning this. But sometimes there are things, you're told things. When I was, you can think back when you were a young man, young woman.

When you're a kid, your parents will say something. And most everything your parents said, you forgot pretty quickly. But sometimes they say something and it just sticks. And sometimes it's something odd and weird.

You're probably thinking of something right now. But sometimes a brother or sister will say something and it just, it just clicks. And you never forget it. You remember exactly where you were. I don't, you know, I don't know what part of the brain it is.

I wish that part was bigger for me, that's for sure. But there are some things that just, you never ever forget. And I remember shortly after we came to this church, going down and visiting the Ricketts at the hospital.

And after visiting with them down there, I was standing out, I believe, in the parking lot with Pastor Fry. We were talking about a number of things. Pastor Fry said something, and he's probably not going to remember this, but you'll have to trust me, brother, I do remember.

But he was talking about the grace of God. And we've said this a number of times, so maybe you will remember this. But I just remember it so clearly. God promises us His grace exactly when we need it.

Not one moment before, not one moment after. He knows when we need His grace. And here you have that statement. God does not promise to give us some overabundance of grace that we just sort of store up someplace, and then when we decide we need it, we dip in.

God knows. God knows exactly when we need His grace, and He knows exactly what kind of grace we need.

And He sustains us.

Even in times when, if I look toward the future and I see, oh, this might happen, I just don't know if I can make it through that situation. I don't know if I can make it through that situation. You can't know that until you come to that time, that great temptation, that great trial, that great difficulty.

You go to the throne of grace and you find out God is able. If you're looking to yourself, you are not able. I can tell you that now. But God is able. This is a throne of grace whereby we might receive mercy, eleas, grace to help us in time of need.

And how are we asked to come before this throne? Well, with confidence. And so some translate that with boldness. I guess that's okay in some senses, but I have to admit that once again, given the abuse of this freedom that we so often see to where it becomes trivialized, to where it becomes just a regular thing, I sort of step back a little bit from that boldness translation at that point.

But it's an appropriate understanding. We come with confidence, but it's not confidence in ourselves. If we look at the text, our confidence is rooted in knowing who our great high priest, who is pastor of the heavens is.

It's never in ourselves. Never do we come before this throne of grace with any shadow of self confidence. It is always Christ confidence. When we bring any of our own merit, any of our own worth, thinking we somehow are special for who we are, we better not come with boldness.

We better come with repentance. So we are to come with confidence, not in ourselves, but in the fact that the one who has opened this way has opened it perfectly. I can't help but think of the connection that has to be made here to what takes place at the very death of Christ.

For when Christ gives his life upon the cross, what takes place? That huge barrier that had always existed in the temple of God, between the people and the holy place, entered into only once a year, it is torn from the top to the bottom.

That veil in the temple was woven fabric many inches thick. Have you ever tried to tear something like that? It was huge and it was heavy. It's torn from the top to the bottom. The way is opened up. It is Christ who has opened that way.

And that is why we are told to come with confidence, because it is God who's opened the way,.

Not man.

What a privilege is given to the child of God in these words. To the person who finds himself under constant attack, can you imagine how many this night in faraway lands, knowing that the key to their cell would be opened by the mere renunciation of the confident statement that Jesus is Lord, that Jesus is the Son of God, knowing that that's what their freedom would be purchased with.

They think upon these words and these words cease being words on a page. They become life itself. That previous verse, the Word of God is living and active, becomes a reality for every single one of those people who, in their loneliness, probably experience a closeness of fellowship with their Lord that many in free nations can never understand.

And they know what it means to come with confidence before the throne of grace, because that's the only place they can go. And yet, in many ways, when you think about that, who's really free?

Who's really free?

When we look around this valley and we see the people with the houses and the boats and the cars, and yet they don't know their Creator. They have no hope. They're miserable. The world says, look at their freedom, but compare them to that faithful believer in the prisons of Iran with boldness upon a stone floor, approaches the throne of grace with confidence.

Who is really free? Do we have the freedom that is ours to come before the throne of grace? We speak of it all the time. When I lead in the morning prayers, we talk about coming before the throne of grace as the people of God.

And yet, do we really understand what that means and the price that was paid that we might have that freedom? Do you see why these words would be seen as life itself to those who their families have excommunicated them?

Their families have said, you're dead to us until you come back. And yet, the writer to the Hebrews says, oh, hold fast your confidence. Look to our high priest. He can sympathize with you. He's gone through what you've gone through and yet without sin, because he's entered into heaven, you too can follow in his footsteps.

Now by prayer, boldly approaching the throne of grace, but should those persecutions of the early church take that saint's life and should those Iranian guards today come in and end the life of that believer, that way is still open.

And Jesus will make sure that everyone who believes in him enters into his presence. And hears those words, well done, thou good and faithful servant. That must be our goal.

Let's pray together.

Our gracious Heavenly Father, we so thank you for the throne of grace.

We are a needy people.

And so often we ignore our own need. So often we are deflected by the world into considering so many things that aren't nearly as important as what our own true needs are. And yet you have shown the way.

You have directed us to come to you, to look to Jesus, to seek to live lives of holiness and godliness. And you have provided the very way for us to do so. Oh Lord, may we in this coming week, this coming year, hold fast our profession.

And may we do so to the honor of Christ. May you make us bold and yet at the same time remind us that we need to be constantly coming before the throne of grace. For it is only by your grace that we will be able to stand.

Help us to do so. To your honor and glory, we pray in Christ's name, amen.